Dracula 7

Study Guide Questions for Ch. 7 "Cutting from 'The Dailygraph'"

If you are looking for the beginning of the study of Bram Stoker’s Dracula then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of available book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!

Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Death, Despair, Religion

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What was a “prolific theme” of discussion concerning the “foreign schooner?”

2. What did the journalist describe as being like “the clammy hands of death?”

3. What caused a “shudder” to run through the crowd as they watched the foreign schooner come closer to shore?

4. What jumped off the ship as soon as it made land?

5. When they came aboard the ship and found its pilot, what did they discover upon him?

6. What had the Demeter been transporting?

7. What happened to the coal merchant’s dog?

8. What caused the sailors on the Demeter to grow increasingly fearful?

9. How did the First Mate of the Demeter die?

10. How did the people of Whitby view the Captain of the ship and his actions?

11. What is Lucy continuing to do which causes Mina concern?

12. What happened to Mr. Swales?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. What accounts for the rapid change in weather that overcame Whitby?

2. What made the people think the foreign schooner (the Demeter) was being sailed incompetently?

3. What did “one old salt” (sailor) mean when he said of the Demeter, “she must fetch up somewhere, if it was only in hell?”

4. Do you think the Demeter only made land (as opposed to striking a reef and wrecking) by pure chance? Why or why not?

5. Where did the dog on the ship come from? 

6. Why did the captain of the Demeter keep the last part of his logbook in a “carefully corked” bottle?

7. What do you think happened to the men who went missing on the Demeter? Why was there no trace of them?

8. What should be inferred from what the First Mate said about his knife going through “It, empty as the air?”

9. Why did the First Mate choose to take his own life as he did?

10. What did the captain mean by saying, “come good wind or foul, I shall save my soul, and my honour as a captain?”

11. How might Lucy’s sleepwalking be related to the wider story?

12. Why was the normally docile dog behaving the way he did in the cemetery near Mina and Lucy?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. Anthropomorphism is the application of human attributes to nonhuman things. How do we see Bram Stoker using anthropomorphism in his description of the storm? What is the purpose in using anthropomorphic language in our descriptions? Why do authors tend to do this? Do you think it is a good practice or should we avoid it? Explain your answer.

2. Offer a definition for the term fear. What kinds of things tend to increase fear and what kinds of things tend to mitigate (reduce the effects of) fear? Consider the situation of the sailors on the ship in this chapter. What about their specific circumstances may have made their situation even more frightening? Do you think their situation or Jonathan Harker’s situation in the castle was more frightening? Why?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read John 20:1-10. What similarities and dissimilarities can you draw between this passage and the people of Whitby’s interest in the beached ship?